I, Magus
by Lord Tangerine
Summary: Fem!Shirou. Rationalist!Shirou. Sorcerer!Shirou. One-shot and prequel to my upcoming crossover fic.


AN: WARNING: Rated M for Magus.

Excerpts from "I, Magus: an Autobiography of one Emiya Mayu, otherwise known as the Savior of the World"

Dedicated to my Father, Emiya Kiritsugu - although you could not be here to witness it, your ideal lived on, and bore fruit more powerful and plentiful than you ever have imagined...

...

My name is Emiya Mayu, and this is my story - or, at least, this is the story of how this particular aspect of my ultimately multifaceted being came to exist. This is the beginning of the story of how I had finally achieved my dream.

My earliest memory is the Fire - the all-consuming flames that surrounded everything and burned everyone around me. I remember walking through the fires, seeing the burned bodies around me, and listening to the cries of the dying. Their cries and pleas for help, for someone to save them from their misery, haunt my dreams and nightmares to this very day. Yet, I knew that I was powerless before the blistering heat of the Fire - and I kept walking, moving past the men, women, and children who pleaded for help I could not give... until I lost the will to live and could walk no more. Feeling the weight and hopelessness of my useless condition, I lay down upon the cool, ash-covered ground and simply stared at the sky, waiting for Death to take me.

Yet, even in this I failed, for Death did not come. Instead, the next thing I remember is waking up to gentle beeping and the sterile smell of rubbing alcohol - a hospital. Apparently, I was the single survivor at the epicenter of whatever caused the fire, and the doctors were beyond ecstatic at my seemingly "miraculous" survival and subsequent recovery. I was grateful for this second chance, yet puzzled that I survived when so many others did not. After all, I was just a little girl - how was it that I was able to recover from burns and smoke inhalation when so many older and stronger adults succumbed to the fury of the flames? The Doctors asked me for the names of my Parents and my background; yet I was not able to provide them with that information. The Doctors asked me for my name - yet, it seems I did not recall even this much about myself. This was fitting, I thought. The person I used to be died in that fire. From this day forward, I decided to dedicate my life to helping people. To healing them, and to saving as many individuals as possible so that no one would ever have to go through what I had if it was in my power to prevent.

A man came to visit me then - a man named Kirutsugu Emiya. He told me that he was a Magus, that magic was real. He told me that this was the reason for my survival. I could have thought he was crazy, could have rationalized him away and continued with what passed for a "normal" life. But I knew in my heart that what he said was true - I knew it with an inexplicable certainty that transcended worldly truths. I knew then that, no matter what it took, I would become a "Magus" like Emiya - and gain access to the power that saved me. I would use that power for the benefit of all mankind, not only to save those who were in trouble, but to save EVERYONE. I would not rest until I transcended Death itself and made human suffering a distant memory.

I hear that many people struggle to find the meaning of life; to find a purpose to their existence. I never experienced such qualms of uncertainty. The purpose of my existence was clear from the moment I met Kiristugu, and I knew then that, no matter what happened in the days that followed, I would never stray from my new ideal.

Kiritsugu offered to adopt me. I accepted without hesitation.

...

The first several months of my life with Kiritsugu - with Father - were filled with... familial disagreements. Being who I am, I naturally made no secret of the fact that I wanted to learn how to be a Magus, and, although Father cautioned me against this life - cautioned me that to be a Magus was to walk with Death - I *refused* to take no for an answer. I knew in my heart that I would accept all the danger in the world to learn magic, because I could feel its limitless potential. I knew that, if anything could help me to achieve my ultimate goal of ending all human suffering and transcending Death itself, Magic was the answer. In the end, Father's apparent resolve proved to be no match against my perseverance - he agreed to teach me, and taught me everything he knew. Perhaps he realized that he was dying and wanted to pass on his legacy. Perhaps he wanted to keep hope alive - hope that his ideal of saving lives could live on. I remembered the last conversation we had, when I pushed Father to finally confide in me. I remember when he explained what he used to do, and why he did it. Father told me his life story. He told me of his desire to save lives, and of the entirety of his career as the Magus Killer. He told me of his philosophical struggles, and of having to choose to directly and indirectly kill dozens - even hundreds - of people in order to ultimately save thousands. He told me of how heavily those decisions weighed on him, and how he was sorry he could not do better. He told me of the Holy Grail War, the sacrifice he made, and the curse that was currently sapping away his magic, health, and life-force. He knew that he was dying - and yet, his only regret was that he could not do better. As he lay there in my arms, he must have been afraid that I would judge him a Monster - yet, all he found in my gaze was love and acceptance. I told him that he made the correct decisions, and that I would use the knowledge imparted by him to continue and improve upon his ideals. I told him that I would gain power - power enough to save everyone, until, eventually, no more people would have to die in order to save others. Even if I had to tear the stars themselves asunder, I told him that I would do everything I could to make a world a better place - a place without unwanted pain, suffering, and even without death. Father took comfort in my acceptance and my resolve. When Kiritsugu Emiya finally closed his eyes that night, for the first time in years, he was content, knowing that his legacy was in good hands.

...

After I finally persuaded Father to teach me the Art, he approached my studies with the same discipline and dedication that made him so successful in his career as the Magus Killer. However, the first few months of my studies proved to be frustrating to say the least. First of all, my initial approach to the activation of Magic Circuits was an absolute failure, which, in retrospect, I was quite lucky to have survived. You see, "magic circuits" are quasi-ethereal pathways bound to a person, which a Magus may use to channel Prana - the energy of the World - in order to effect the chosen Magickal technique. However, in my initial ignorance during the first several months, rather than activating my existing Circuits, I "created" a new makeshift "Circuit" every time I tried to cast a technique by converting one of my nerves into an artificial Circuit pathway. Needless to say, while not without precedent, this technique was not widely used in the Mage community, to put things mildly. Not only is converting your nerves into makeshift Circuits excruciatingly painful, it also has a chance to cause permanent nerve damage, paralysis, or even death, as a side effect to the user. Needless to say, I was lucky to have been able to walk around after attempting the technique - and it was a small miracle I didn't end up as a vegetable, let alone actually succeeded with the techniques I was trying to manifest. When I later asked Father about the reasons behind my miraculously-healthy state and lack of lasting damage, he told me of the legendary Noble Phantasm - Avalon - that was sealed inside me. While the legendary artifact healed me and protected my nerves from lasting harm, Kiritsugu still stressed the foolish, dangerous nature of my actions and taught me the "proper" way of activating my Circuits.

While learning to use my "proper" circuits did wonders for my nerve health and not feeling excruciating pain during magickal exercises, it did nothing to make me more talented in the Art. For all my dedication to my studies and Kiritsugu's relentless, expert tutelage, it seemed that the only talent I had was towards the techniques of Structural Analysis, Projection, and Reinforcement. While I eventually demonstrated the magnificent extent of just what may be accomplished with these three techniques, at the time they were considered... techniques of "limited utility" by the Magus community. Father himself, for the longest time, considered them mostly useless. Determined to prove him wrong, I practiced those three techniques relentlessly until I finally felt I had achieved a satisfactory level of proficiency - which, I later discovered, amounted to effectively surpassing the mastery of all Mages who came before me, and (at least with respect to Blades) reaching a level of ability that bordered on True Sorcery.

Indeed, my eventual ability with these seemingly "basic" techniques proved to be truly mind-boggling even to the so-called "masters" of the Craft. When another Magus would use "structural analysis" on an object, they would gain nothing more than basic information about that object's structure and composition. For me, "structural analysis" became much more than that - I was eventually able to become intimately aware of every detail of the object I "analyzed" - even down to the very last molecule. Beyond even that, I became intimately aware of the Psychic imprints the object left on the World. I was able to gain complete knowledge of every aspect of the object's history and manufacturing processes - even going as far as to gain glimpses of other objects and Individuals who previously came into contact with what I Analyzed.

When another Magus employed "Projection," they could create a pale imitation of an object they previously Analyzed - an imitation that would degrade after a few seconds or minutes at best, truly nothing more than a parlor trick. When I "projected" something, however, I copied the object in question almost perfectly and down to the smallest detail - including every aspect of its material composition, manufacturing processes, and history. While most of my Projections were still imperfect and eventually degraded, this took hours, days, or sometimes even weeks; and the quality of my work surpassed that of any other Projections my Father had ever seen.

When another Magus employed "Reinforcement," they could fortify the "Existence" of an object in the world - for instance, making a sharp knife more difficult to wear down, or making the bones and skin on the human body more structurally *solid* and, thus, more difficult to break. However, the depths to which I took my "Structural Analysis" meant that my "Reinforcement" had a degree of fine control and versatility that was several orders of magnitude beyond what anyone else - to date - had ever achieved. Put simply, I could pick out any physical or metaphysical properties of any given object or substance - including aspects of the object's history - and could reinforce those properties *selectively*. Going even beyond that and to the next step of Mastery, I was eventually able to selectively unravel the properties of an object that would otherwise be considered "fundamental" while *reinforcing* its other aspects to fill the gaps. In other words, I could, quite literally, persuade water to no longer be *wet*, or to tell it to radiate heat when it froze while absorbing heat while boiling. I could tell gold to respond to magnetic fields and "persuade" a non-conducting piece of rubber that it was, in fact a room-temperature super-conductor, the ... "Holy Grail" of electrical engineering.

But, as impressive as these abilities became with respect to most mundane objects, they were nothing when compared to the degree of mastery I achieved when I employed them on what I shall now call a Blade - but which, more specifically, encompasses any object that in any way resembled a Sword, or indeed any object, substance, or concept that is even remotely similar or related to the concept of a Sword. For instance, while my "structural analysis" was extremely detailed with respect to most objects, with respect to Blades it was nothing short of Transcendental. With a mere passing glance at a Blade, I was able to ascertain not only its structure and history, but could also gain *complete* awareness of that Blade's previous wielders - including the knowledge and experience those individuals possessed when they were in contact with the object. With a bit more effort, I was able to selectively - and permanently - retain that knowledge and experience, and apply it to my future endeavors.

My Projection abilities with Blades were also truly on a whole other level. As you are no doubt aware, the World recognizes projections as unnatural and exerts its *weight* upon them, seeking to erase the "unnatural" projected objects from existence. As such, all conventional projections are known to degrade over time - and indeed, this is true even with respect to my high-quality projections. Or rather, I should say this *was* the case with *most* of my projections, including those dealing with Blades. I say *was* here because, after two years of study and dedicated effort, I was finally able to achieve with my Blade projections what many would have considered impossible: my projections were able to replicate Blades *perfectly*... so perfectly, in fact, that not even the World could tell the difference between one of my projections and the original object. As a result, the projections of my Blades no longer degrade, and are in no way inferior to the originals.

In fact, my Reinforcement technique, when used on Blades, could make them superior to their original counterparts to an obscene degree. After months of practice, I was able to selectively adjust any and all physical properties of my Blades. And, by "any and all physical properties" I not only mean trivial concepts like *structural integrity* and *sharpness,* but also things like *inertia,**the ability to be affected by gravity,**position in space-time,* and *velocity,* among many, many others. In other words, I would consider projecting a dozen *floating* Blades and launching them at a target with speed and acceleration comparable to that of a bullet to be an utterly trivial task.

In fact, it was my affinity for working with Blades that finally led to a great breakthrough in my studies - specifically, I learned that, thankfully, my efforts to learn elemental spells did not fail due to a lack of talent. Rather, I learned that both my Origin and Element - my magickal affinities, if you will - were *Sword*. Father theorized that this unusual circumstance was due to Avalon's - the sheathe of the legendary Sword, Excalibur's - influence as a result of being sealed within me for so long. While *Sword* was certainly an extremely unusual and esoteric affinity that could severely limit the scope of my abilities, I chose not to see it that way. Instead, I chose to see my affinity for Blades as an opportunity to advance my cause of helping people to transcend pain, suffering, sickness, and other mortal limitations. After considering the problem briefly, the answer came to me in a flash: I asked Father to bring me a sample of used medical scalpels, and he immediately understood my intentions. Father's efforts (and his many connections as the Magus Killer) didn't disappoint - soon, I had quite a large collection of scalpels and other surgical instruments used by some of the best surgeons and other medical professionals in the world. My superior ability with Structural Analysis greedily drank in the knowledge and skills that came with the Blades, and, with a bit of effort and meditation, I was able to retain and build on that knowledge from one Blade to the next. Within two weeks, I possessed medical knowledge and surgical skills that equaled - and, most probably, even surpassed - the skills of the best Doctors the world had to offer.

With my absorbed knowledge came the memories of many years of education, along with the corresponding scientific background and deductive reasoning skills. Soon I began to reconsider many of my previous assumptions of what was and was not possible with respect to Magic, and yearned to test my new hypotheses. My ability to create Circuits from neurons was one of the first I revisited. Father told me that the power output of a Magus depends on the number and quality of the semi-ethereal "Magic Circuits" that are bound to the Magus' (for lack of a better term) "soul." I myself possessed the - admittedly above-average - 27 circuits, while members of the Clock Tower's elite bloodlines supposedly boasted an average of several dozen high quality circuits per person... However, I couldn't shake the realization that I was on to something when I converted my neurons into makeshift Circuits. After all, the human body possesses a nearly countless number of individual neurons, with more than *100 BILLION NEURONS* in the human brain alone. I realized that, if I found a way to turn even a relatively small percentage of these neurons into Circuits - even if they were comparatively low quality Circuits - I could most definitely surpass not only the top Mages of the Clock Tower in sheer power output, but could likely surpass the *combined* output of the entirety of all Clock Tower mages; maybe even all Mages on the face of the planet (with the possible sole exception of the legendary Sorcerer Zeltrech, who, as you likely know, has the power to pull energy from an unknown number of his alternate selves across the various realities). Gaining such power was all but essential in order to achieve my dream of ending all death and human suffering - and so, I threw myself into my great work with an unsurpassed abandon and fanaticism. Initially, of course, all my efforts ended in failure - after all, I was not the first person to come up with the idea of converting Neurons into Circuits - and yet, to date there have been no God-like Mages who have ever been able to successfully take advantage of that procedure. Needless to say, other than experiencing a great deal of pain, I initially made little progress because my created "neuro-circuits" degraded over time. Yet, I eventually realized that I had an advantage that all other Mages before me lacked - Avalon. Yes indeed, the instrument of my salvation against nerve damage became the source of my success after I learned to abuse the artifact's properties. You see, I realized that Avalon healed my neurons by returning my body to the "default" undamaged state; and I further realized that Avalon gained information on the "proper" state of the neurons from the psychic world imprint of the neurons themselves. This "imprint" was what told Avalon the "proper" state in which the "healed" neurons belonged.

How fortunate. With my new medical and scientific knowledge and my superior ability with *structural analysis* and *reinforcement,* I was able to selectively alter the "default" state of my own converted neurons sufficiently to convince Avalon's magick that the default "healed" state of my neurons was, in fact, their converted state as magic Circuits. In time, after being tended to by Avalon's ministrations, my body was able to accept the new Circuits quite smoothly - as if they always belonged there. The only drawback to the procedure was the several minutes of absolutely excruciating pain it took to "persuade" one of my nerves to become a Circuit. I regret that I didn't perfect this conversion procedure until after Father passed away, so he was not able to witness the realization of my potential. However, I honored Father's memory and ideals by diligently building my power and, during the five years that followed Father's death, I was able to build up over 9000 new Circuits.

...

The next few years were spent realizing the full potential of my abilities and medical knowledge for the sake of saving people. I was able to easily test out of high school and utterly breeze through the first few years of the University curriculum. Just four years after discovering of my Sword affinity, I was already finishing my Doctorate dissertation on Bio-Molecular Chemistry and doing an internship at the local hospital in preparation for entering Medical School. At night, I visited patients and cured as many as I could with my newly-perfected abilities. My favorite activity was curing cancer patients by projecting millions of nano-scopic scalpels *within* the tumors - flawlessly and painlessly removing the blight from the patients while leaving healthy tissue entirely untouched. Sadly, the peaceful time was not to last.

I knew that the Grail War might be coming from my earlier discussions with Father; yet, the events that came to be known as the Fifth Holy Grail War arrived sooner than I expected. They were also a bit anti-climactic, since my sheer power output by that time pretty much curb-stomped all competition. I preferred this lack of excitement to the alternative, since it meant less people were put in danger as a result of the War. In fact, when I became aware of what was happening, I didn't even bother to summon a Servant, not wishing to inflict unnecessary suffering on another sentient being - spiritual or otherwise. Instead, I decided to use my considerable new-found Power to do what was necessary to destroy the Grail and ensure that the death and suffering caused by the War never occurred again.

The first Servant to attack me was, surprisingly, Archer. He attempted to behead me while I walked home from work, but I was well aware of his presence due to subtly using structural analysis on the surrounding air in a half-mile radius in every direction. With the level of awareness I possessed as a result, I would be very surprised if even a single bacterium could sneak up on me without my knowledge - so, Archer's attempt at a "stealthy" assassination was, frankly, laughable. Naturally, I dodged while using Reinforcement on the surrounding air molecules in order to make them as hard as tempered steel...

I confess to being extremely surprised when Archer's blades cut through my air barrier as if it was butter, and went on to cut through my obscenely reinforced skin, actually drawing blood on my left cheek. I pushed out with my magic to gain a little distance and asked my attacker why he was attempting to kill me. Archer gave a, frankly incoherent, reply that he was only "killing me for my own good" and "sparing me the misery" of future existence. While the fool was busy monologuing, I made an in-depth structural analysis of his swords - and was concerned with what I saw. The physical combat capabilities and sheer experience of the Counter Guardian that stood before me surpassed anything I had ever seen or experienced before. I knew that I did not stand a chance against Archer in a fair fight - fortunately, "fairness" was not my strong suit. I did the only thing I could think of to tip the balance of the fight in my favor: for the first time since acquiring them, I released all 9027 of my Circuits. The result surpassed even my expectations. My body shone with power like a noon-day sun, releasing an upward beam of light that illuminated the entire area as if it were daytime. The ground cratered and concrete melted and shredded before the sheer *weight* my "soul" - and more than 180,000 coherent units of Prana - exerted upon Existence. The air itself became heavy, and even something as simple as breathing became more difficult than inhaling water. Archer physically shook and fell to his knees as my undirected power weighed him down... Then, I decided to give my power *direction* and *form*. I suppose I could have shown off by filling the entire sky with hundreds of thousands of swords, or something equally ridiculous... but I had far more control and intelligence to resort to such crude tactics. I briefly structurally analyzed Archer's body and put him to sleep with a very modest (by my standards) application of directed Prana. I then restrained his body with reinforced carbon composite chains and took him over to my lab for further analysis. After I decided to structurally grasp Archer's brain - for purely academic reasons, of course - I immediately regretted it. Now, a normal brain is by no means a Blade - after all, I structurally grasped brain tissue all the time with the hospital patients I visited, and I never received truly detailed information about that person's memories or experiences. However, Archer's brain was... *Sword*... which naturally resulted in a colossal headache for me when I tried to *grasp* its structure. You see, Archer appears to have been an alternate reality, male version of myself, who ultimately struck a deal with the Spirit of Humanity to become a Counter Guardian. It was an arguably heroic, but ultimately miserable existence, in which Archer was forced to repeatedly travel through space and time and kill millions of individuals... in order to save countless *billions* of lives. The truly unfortunate aspect of Archer's Bargain was that Archer would be forced to perform this duty for all eternity in an ultimate perversion of his - and my - original ideals. If there ever was a hellish existence, this was it. In fact, Archer's actions in trying to murder me were motivated, in part, by the desire to spare me the kind of fate that befell him - although he was aware that, being of different genders, we were separate individuals, Archer nevertheless wanted to spare me the suffering that he underwent during his long history as the Counter Guardian.

I could appreciate the sentiment, and was glad to return the favor. I was not able to undo the Bargain that Archer struck - such (at least for the moment) was beyond even my considerable abilities. However, I could do the next best thing - I could grant Archer's with the gift of *non-existence*.

I never ceased my efforts to improve my magickal abilities, particularly my three core techniques of structural grasp, reinforcement, and tracing (my name for projection, since simply calling it that seemed entirely inadequate). As a logical progression to the ability to selectively reinforce and project various traits in an object, I mastered the ability to selectively *unravel* those traits, thus causing an existing trait to lapse into *non-existence.* If I did this with the entire history of an object, I could effectively erase it from space-time, literally creating *nothing* out of *something*. While this is most definitely a Sorcery-level ability, at the time it only worked with Blades due to my strong affinity for them. Fortunately, Archer's entire essence of existence was a *Sword,* and therefore, my new "Call of the Void" ability worked perfectly well on him. Unraveling Archer's existence was a little sad, but I was also happy that he was finally released from his hellish burden so that he could finally be at peace. Regardless of what adventures happened to his soul after this, he would forever be free of Alaya.

Caster was the Servant I encountered next. Predictably, she did not trust me and attacked me with innumerable energy blasts. I... was not impressed. Releasing a bit less than 10% of my power was enough to nullify even the most powerful attacks she threw at me... Needless to say, this made her nervous to say the least. Fortunately, I was able to engage her in conversation and convinced her to join my side instead of following the orders of her Summoner. After all, all Caster really wanted from the Grail was a second chance at leading a normal life - and I had more than sufficient power and medical skill to create her a permanent homunculus to do just that, without any need to resort to a corrupted wish-granting artifact. Copying Rule-Breaker and using it on Caster - or, rather, Medea - was child's play to me. I wish I could have taken a picture of Medea's facial expression when I flawlessly replicated a superior version of her Noble Phantasm with more ease than a 5-year old reaching for her favorite toy.

After Medea joined me, things became even easier for my War efforts. After Lancer attacked, I was able to keep him busy long enough for Medea to use "Rule-Breaker" and sever his bond with his Master. I bound him to me, and told him that I would give him the same option as Medea at the end of the war, and that he could do whatever he wanted as long as he didn't interfere with my plans or hurt any people. Lancer decided to stick around and observe what I got up to.

My next opponent was Tōsaka Rin, a student from the local High School. While I gathered from Archer's memories that she was likely to summon the Archer class, in this version of reality she seems to have summoned Rider instead. I was able to defeat and bind Rider relatively easily - and was even able to shake off her "Medusa's Gaze" ability through sheer brute force, much to the shock of both Rider and Rin. (Hey, you know what they say about brute force - if it's not working for you, you ain't using enough.)

After I used Rule-Breaker on Rider, Rin became enraged and attacked me - while my back was turned, I might add. I retaliated reflexively, and my retaliatory blast did quite a number on Rin. In fact, she fell into a coma in the wake of my attack, and it was only through my great skill as a medic that I stopped her from dying outright. I decided against healing her coma for the time being - I didn't know if she could be trusted, after all, and she might interfere with my plans for the World. Besides, she was definitely safer at the hospital while the war was still going on...

The Matou family, unfortunately, had to be exterminated. While Sakura was a sweet girl, she was infected with the corrupted remnants of the former Grail, of which she lost control. If I didn't destroy her, many people would have died, and, regardless of my goal to eventually save everyone, I just couldn't risk the safety of many innocents over a single individual. I tried to make her death as quick and painless as possible and in this, at least, I believe I have succeeded. After I learned of them, I was utterly disgusted over the depravities to which Sakura's family subjected the poor girl, and I took revenge upon them by exterminating the whole lot of the abusers, rapists, and scourge of humanity that they were. Their Assassin servant had interesting sword skills I was happy to copy from his weapon, but was ultimately no match for the literal billions of microscopic, reinforced monomolecular scalpels I traced within his body - he was utterly shredded on a cellular level before he even had a chance to blink.

The Einzbern construct was a little more challenging. She was a seemingly innocent-looking girl, but a cursory survey with my senses told me of her true nature - she was a homunculus; a magical construct created for the sole purpose of winning the War. Of course, this was no reason to make her suffer needlessly - upon encountering her, I immediately traced several trillion of my nano-scalpels in order to eliminate the threat with the least amount suffering possible. While her servant, Berserker's, Noble Phantasm would have ordinarily resisted even my reinforced monomolecular blades, overcharging their *sharpness* and *structural integrity* with a full 20% of my power did the trick just fine - there was quite literally nothing visible left of Berserker's body after my cloud of traced nanoscalpels dispersed.

Of course, nothing could ever be as easy as one would expect - as I soon discovered. As it turns out, Kirei Kotomine, the supposed arbiter of the war, had a Servant of his own: none other than the legendary Gilgamesh, the quasi-divine hero with access to an almost limitless armory of exotic Noble Phantasms. I must confess, Gil pushed me hard, and even had me on the ropes for a little while. The son-of-a-bitch knew it too, but, instead of striking with his entire power at once and ending the fight quickly, he made the mistake of underestimating me and made the fight into a game. This was a mistake he didn't live to regret. You see, my affinity for *Blades* made me the perfect opponent for Gilgamesh, and, for every blade that he threw at me, I was able to add a little more to my arsenal and learn a little more about my opponent. Eventually, right as Gilgamesh started to get bored with the chase and released a barrage of Blades he thought would be unstoppable, I had a revelation - you could even call it an epiphany. I released all my circuits and reached out with my considerable power - covering all of the blades that were rapidly converging on me and then beyond, ripping into the portal to Gil's mythical treasury and encompassing all of the Blades within. I used structural analysis on all of them at once. And I finally realized, fully realized, what it meant for Blades to fall within *my* element. I realized that one shouldn't be able to hurt *me* with Blades any more than you could hurt a fish by throwing it into water. This realization shook my very being and gave me an amazing level of clarity - and I used that clarity to take control of the battle. I reached out to the properties of the Blades before me, finding the aspects that denoted their kinetic energy. Then, I lifted a single finger, and set it all to zero. The barrage of mythical Noble Phantasms - power enough to raise mountains, slaughter armies, and topple Nations - stopped in its tracks as if it never moved in the first place. Disregarding Gil's wide-eyed expression, I calmly turned the blades around, then resumed their attack - this time, directed at my foe. The legendary Hero, Gilgamesh, hardly had enough time to scream in surprise before being annihilated by his own Noble Phantasms. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what I would call "poetic justice."

...

Naturally, the Clock Tower eventually got wind of my abilities and attempted to slap me with a Sealing Designation. To use crude language, I told them to fuck right off. After I mopped the floor with their fourth Enforcer team, they finally got the hint and decided that trying to mess with the Mistress of the Sixth Sorcery (which is what they ended up naming my Call of the Void ability) was simply too much trouble. I am now a relatively well-known surgeon, and my medical technologies - created with the generous assistance of Magecraft - have helped to save countless lives, and will undoubtedly save countless more. I still have more work to do... and I love every minute of it.

...

...

...

Author's Note:

FAQ:

Q: Why did you make this Shiro a female?

A: I wanted to experiment with a strong female character, and I also wanted a convenient excuse for Mayu to have the kind of personality that would seek to help people by healing them rather than through combat. Honestly, fighting to save people - such a boyish thing to do...

Q: There are only 5 Sorceries!

A: I am well aware of the fact that Canon only has five True Magics. What might not be obvious to some - even after Mayu used reverse-reinforcement to literally unravel Archer's very *existence* (let that sink in for a minute), is that her mastery over structural grasp and reinforcement led to the development of the unprecedented 6th True Magic, which she calls "the Call of the Void." To explain its ability in brief terms: while the Denial of Nothingness is able to create something from nothing, the Call of the Void is able to selectively create *nothing* from something. You've seen numerous examples of its applications in this fic, even though you may not have realized it. For instance, the reason why Mayu was able to seemingly ignore the magic resistance of the Servants she fought like it wasn't even there... was because it *wasn't* there. It had literally been reduced to nothing by her intent when she tried to imbue the traced Blades with the ability to annihilate them.

Q: Wouldn't Mayu have spontaneously combusted from tapping all of that power all at once?

A: Nope. Selectively reducing an aspect of her own being - such as *being affected by heat* to nothing is well within her abilities. In fact, because self-preservation is instinctual, she wouldn't even need to actively concentrate in order to do it.

Q: Wait, aren't those abilities, like, way overpowered?

A: Why yes. Yes they are. insert evil laughter here

Q: I want to know what happened to Lancer, Caster, and Rider!

A: If I ever get around to writing it, you can read the next fic and find out ;)


End file.
